Acquisitions with a Value Focus
The News
I’ve got my “analyst” hat on, and it’s been a busy New Year for the data and analytics space from an acquisition perspective. A couple of announcements caught my eye. Qlik intends to buy Talend to add greater data integration capabilities to its analytic platform.
Progress Software intends to purchase Marklogic and add its data management and semantic abilities to its offerings. At the same time, DataStax announced its acquisition of Kaskada to leverage time-based machine learning with its scale-out database in the cloud for real-time AI apps. That’s a lot for the first few days of 2023.
My Point of View
It’s not surprising to see vendors expanding their footprint across the data ecosystem to continue intersecting with the innovation paths of their clients. The requirement to integrate and immediately access data, manage, and understand it is the foundation for enabling quick/accurate insights and actions. This capability is a critical competitive advantage for all of them and their clients. Coupling these proficiencies with their existing products makes a lot of sense.
Why Customers Should Care
Time to action and delivery of business value is limited by the agility of a company’s data architecture. Business interactions like point of sale, holistic performance like customer experience, and interventions like risk management all require action within a specific time threshold to realize value; some are sub-second, others just minutes.
Your ability to compete and innovate is seriously constrained if your data ecosystem needs to catch up with the speed required to deliver value. Successful data-driven companies demand greater agility (speed) from their data architecture and solutions. Unsurprisingly, these vendors are bolstering their abilities to better meet the demands of the value window of business interactions and time.
